 After
our girl, Tango, whelped her first litter of puppies late in May, she & I
had many a polite discussion on the subject of proper whelping box maintenance.
She deemed it best to dig her bedding materials up into a huge pile pushed into
the exact center of her box, subjecting her newborns to frequent "Canine
Spring Cleaning Offensives" & often burying the poor things under their
blanket in the process. I thought it would be far nicer, & much safer for
the puppies, to have their blanket lying flat with the pups located on top of
it, to give those tiny little paws a good solid grip in the material while they
were jockeying for position at Mamma Tango’s Dairy Bar. Tango didn’t seem to
realize that her new babies needed to have a surface that they could get some
traction upon while pushing & clawing, scrambling & scrabbling in search
of their next meal. Young puppies that have to attempt to manage this on too
slick a surface may stress & strain or over flex their little joints in the
effort, which could lead to Canine Hip Dysplasia later in their life. Heredity
& environment both play their parts in the development of a litter of
puppies.
This obsessive digging in her bedding
was purely instinctual behavior on Tango’s part. She thought that she needed
to dig down to cooler "earth" in her man-made "den," to the
purpose of freshening the bed for her new puppies as well as getting down to a
cooler layer of "dirt" to make herself more comfortable with all those
tiny furry bodies pressed up against her. Were she not my beloved companion,
having her puppies in our home in a whelping box constructed for that purpose,
in the wild she would have carefully chosen a safe area in which to dig herself
an appropriate den, or to "remodel" one that was once the property of
some other animal. After having her puppies without human intervention, she
would then have cleaned her nest by further digging to get down to a level of
dryer & cooler soil. You can’t fool Mother Nature.
We humans can tend to get all bent out
of shape over some instinctual canine behaviors. Doing this at the time leading
up to, during, & immediately after the birth of a litter of puppies, when
powerful instinctual maternal drives are taking over a bitch’s behavior
patterns can make the whole ordeal harder & more stressful for all parties.
An attempt to completely suppress a bitch’s primitive need to dig for herself
a safe nursery is only going to frustrate both canine & human being.
Shredding & digging in her bedding is not something she is doing to be
naughty or annoying; it is a natural part of the birthing process. She is driven
by instinct to prepare a den & to keep it clean & tidy after the pups
have arrived.
It’s best to give her materials that
she can safely tear up & dig in to her heart’s content. Choose something
you won’t mind losing; otherwise she may unintentionally wreck something that
you care rather more about. Miko had a litter at Christmas one year, & as is
usual at the Holidays there were rather more distractions than normal. She chose
that opportunity to slip into the bedroom & fashion herself quite a lovely
nest in the goose down featherbed. We found her comfortably curled up asleep
amidst the total demolition of the ‘human bedding," & she woke
looking most pleased with herself while peering out at the world through an
indoor goose feather blizzard wafting in the air, lodged in her coat, &
scattered throughout the room. She’d sent those feathers flying & her
little face was full of doggy self-satisfaction. We couldn’t scold her, as she
had done nothing more than to respond to an internal drive at a moment when we
humans got careless. Yes, dogs can think. But they think like dogs; not like
humans. Had I disciplined poor Miko for responding to an instinctual need well
after the offending deed had been done, she would have been totally unable to
understand why she was being taken to task. People who attribute human reasoning
abilities & human qualities to dogs miss the chance to view the world
through a canine perspective, & their dealings with dogs will be less than
successful & not as rewarding as they ought to be. I will admit that I did
do a bit of grumbling at myself under my breath while lugging the shop-vac
around trying to clean up that horrendous mess, having first resettled her back
in her whelping box where we had planned on her having her babies. Her Christmas
Eve featherbed assault was indeed followed on Christmas Day by the arrival of 8
bouncing baby puppies. She knew.
One of my friends had a bitch named
Cassie that always looked as if she had swallowed a very large watermelon just
before whelping. Diane says that Cassie decided the best thing for an expectant
Mother Dog to do was to excavate a hole for herself underneath her doghouse
& then attempt to squeeze her huge self into it. This went on over a period
of several days. Cassie would dig in & set up housekeeping, refusing to come
back out when called, & Diane would have to dig her right back out of there.
Cassie finally got moved into the house earlier than Diane had originally
planned to do, as she was afraid that Cassie would get stuck in her
"doghouse basement" den & try to have her puppies in there.
Diane’s Barnaby daughter, Shadow,
adopted two very cute "dragon" stuffed plush toys when she was
expecting. Shadow "stole" the two toys from the other dogs about a
week before she had her puppies. She guarded & carefully tended her two
toys, Insisting that they go everywhere with her for the entire week before she
whelped. She carried them with her onto the couch during the day, & carried
them up onto Diane’s daughter’s bed with her every night. The toys were
taken from her when they were soiled, then washed, & Shadow would retrieve
them fresh from the clothes dryer, repossessing them for herself & snuggling
them by her belly as if she thought the toys might want to nurse. After all of
this, Shadow had two puppies. Two toys for two puppies; it makes one wonder.
Dogs at times give the impression that
they are able to read our minds. What is really happening is that they are
carefully watching us, even to the point of studying us in order to anticipate
what we might do, or wish of them. Dogs communicate with each other through body
language, and they are also very good at reading human body language. Careful
observation of the expectant bitch allows an owner to "read" their
dog, to have some idea of how she is feeling & what she intends to do by the
look she has & the ways she moves.
A bitch approaching the last stages of a
pregnancy can become a study in canine confusion. She is aware of changes taking
place inside her own body. Many will feel a need to become clingy & want to
spend more time very close to their special human. At the same time instinct is
urging her to seek seclusion from humans & other animals in general.
She may go off her food, or she may eat
it ravenously only to throw the meal right back up later on. "Morning
sickness" is not unusual. It’s caused by hormonal changes & by
pressure from her enlarging uterus. An expectant bitch may not want food at her
accustomed meal times, or want food in the usual amounts. Food should be offered
when she seems to feel ready for it, more frequently & in smaller amounts.
It’s not unusual for a heavily pregnant bitch to refuse food for parts of a
day, or even to choose not to eat for a day as discomfort from the pressure of
her growing puppies increases near to term. Food cravings are not unheard of,
either. Tango developed a passion for oranges & orange juice, which she had
always previously ignored.
The expectant mother will need to
relieve herself a lot more frequently as pressure increases on her bladder.
Turned loose into the fenced yard, or one’s favorite flowerbed, she is going
to indulge in some fairly industrious digging. It is best to allow a bitch’s
urge to dig for herself a safe den. It’s part of the natural process for her.
Just keep an eye on the location & the progress of the "building
project" so she can’t get out of reach at a time when she needs
assistance, or possibly become stuck in there, unable to maneuver her way back
out. She may satisfy herself with relandscaping the yard into a smooth,
depressed area large enough for herself to lie down in, or she may create her
own little cave somewhere. Inside the house she may well try to "build a
new basement" in the flooring or a carpet.
These seem minor annoyances when
compared to that definite soft look in her eye that a near to term bitch will
have. As her girth expands, most acquire a contemplative expression of bliss,
peace, & love. Even a bitch that normally has the sweetest of expressions
with an "I love you" personality will develop a more soulful look, as
if aware at least on some level of the grand mystery that is occurring within
her body.
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